Head of the state as well as the Church, he was Caesar and Pope in one; but he was Pope without the Pope’s pretensions, Caesar without the legions of Caesar: without a standing army, without a bodyguard, without a palace, without a fixed revenue; if ever any man had the right to say that he ruled by the right divine, it was Mohammed, for he had all the power without its instruments and without its supports. He cared not for the dressings of power. The simplicity of his private life was in keeping with his public life.

In Mohammadanism everything is different here. Instead of the shadowy and the mysterious, we have history… We know of the external history of Muhammad… while for his internal history after his mission had been proclaimed, we have a book absolutely unique in its origin, in its preservation… on the Substantial authority of which no one has ever been able to cast a serious doubt.

– Reverend Bosworth Smith, MOHAMMAD AND MOHAMMADANISM, London, 1874

Note: Although the sentiment is admirably correct, it is worth noting that the colonial and scholarly Oriental mindset was everywhere prevalent in the late 19th Century, which esteemed Islam less than its Prophet in naming the religion (thus Mohammadanism), as if Islam were founded entirely through the efforts of one inspired individual and not decreed by the will of God.

“We should not be ashamed to acknowledge truth from whatever source it comes to us, even if it is brought to us by former generations and foreign peoples. For him who seeks the truth there is nothing of higher value than truth itself.”

Note: Al-Kindi (801- 873 CE) is the father of Islamic Philosophy. He was also a scientist, a gifted mathematician, astronomer, physician, geographer, and musician. A Renaissance man in the Middle Ages.